Video games have been played for many years and are typically sedentary in that a user or gamer plays the game while seated. A user of traditional video games is typically limited in their physical activity while playing the game to pressing buttons or moving a joy stick to control game play. Game play can consist of spending hours sitting in front of a screen pushing the same three buttons over and over again. Traditional games occasionally require control of a character or symbol on the screen using the controller and potentially puzzle solving.
Video game play has evolved from these traditional games to require players to at least stand and make physical movements to control the symbol of the game. Some of these more updated and active video games are not necessarily a rigorous workout, but are significantly more active than traditional video games. Video game designers and manufacturers have recently introduced motion controls and/or exercise-based games into their gaming machines. Numerous manufacturers are producing such active video games based upon customer demand and/or to keep up with their competitors. It would be desirable to develop a system and/or method for rating these more active game systems to provide relatively easily understandable information to consumers regarding the energy or physical activity that is expended during game play.
Manufacturers and designers are also updating popular or existing games that users are familiar with to require more physical activity. That is, popular and familiar traditional games that previously required little to no physical activity are being adapted into active games that provide a very different experience for the user. An individual manufacturer or game developer is not generally driving the updates in the games, but these updates are relatively widespread throughout the manufacturing, developer and gaming industries. These updated, more active games generally urge players to get up off the couch and break a sweat or at least become involved in more intense physical activity than resulted from traditional games. New hardware is paving the way for much of the increased physical activity in game play. Game consoles have developed or incorporated a variety of controllers, such as a wand that mimics a user's movements when the wand is moved and tracked by the game console, which permits players to use precision arm and body motions to interact with the games. Certain manufacturers also utilize camera-based consoles that turn a garners entire body into a controller. In addition, other manufacturers and consoles have developed technology and sensors to track biometrics of a user including breathing and heart rate and have incorporated this information into game play.
The relatively recently introduced motion control and biometric-tracking technology has changed the way gamers interact and play video games in a fundamental way. Nearly all major gaming consoles are moving toward motion control devices. Benefits of this movement in the industry has the potential to combat childhood obesity and/or obesity generally in the general public in a way that was not deemed previously possible. These more active video games have the potential to get sedentary garners off of the couch to participate in active games, some of which are adapted from the traditional/familiar video games that the garners enjoy.
The shift in the industry is typically designed to give consumers new forms of entertainment. However, the industry may channel its immense resources into developing fun games that give players a cardiovascular workout instead of churning out the type of couch-bound, pixel-hunting games companies have often been forced to defend. Such a shift could strike a blow against childhood obesity and/or obesity in general, which has become a major public health crisis in the United States and abroad.
Decades of research in obesity in young people has revealed that people exercise on a more regular basis if they do something they enjoy. Historically, exercise video games have been more like exercise videos in that they attempt to be fun, but mostly wind-up being a boring, monotonous workout to be endured rather than an enjoyable activity people, garners or users look forward to performing.
Some efforts have been undertaken to assess the energy expenditure of these more active video games. These assessments have typically focused on an individual game in order to assess whether the intensity of this individual game is sufficient to replace certain exercise activities recommended by various organizations for optimal health. The results of such assessments are typically presented as raw data of energy expenditure and not as an easily understood ranking, label or meaningful symbol to a non-clinician or consumer. In addition, prior research efforts have typically focused on a single game or a single gaming system. These prior research efforts typically do not take into consideration that the game may vary greatly in exercise intensity depending on which system the game is played on. Further, no systematic protocol has been established to rank games from low to high intensity, taking into consideration the various forms of motion and various consumer console products that are available. These assessments also generally do not take into consideration games played in particular settings that can dramatically impact energy expenditure over a set increment or incremental time of game play. Many assessments or ratings have focused on the violent or non-violent content of games, not energy expenditure.
It would be desirable to develop a system and method for assessing energy expenditure of video games during typical game play. It would be desirable for these assessments to result in a rating system that is relatively quickly and easily understood by a typical consumer and permits the typical consumer to make informed decisions when purchasing these more active games and/or game consoles. It would also be desirable to develop a relatively easily understood system that is able to provide information to parents when making purchasing decisions related to the activity required for video games marketed and/or designed for children. Preferably, such a relatively easy to understand rating system could assist in combating childhood obesity in today's youth and in the general population.